NY Times’ Nick Confessore has a long piece on how the millionaires and billionaires have targeted Illinois, put Bruce Rauner, one of their own in the governors mansion and set up a battle royale for democracy in the state.

Illinois, Mr. Page added, is “a case study of the disconnect in action — between what average citizens want the government to do and what it does.”

One percenters like Bruce Rauner and his pals have decided that the only way to save the country is to impose their will on it because they know better. And what do they know? Oddly enough, it’s that taxes should be lower, especially on them, the government spends too much on the poors, regulation on business is bad.

You see, things aren’t great anymore (funny how the people who have everything are the most negative about everything), and the answer that these people have decided on is to trash everything that made the greatness and double down on the policies that drained it away.

So unions?  Have to go.

The minimum wage? Not necessary.

Social safety nets? A fine thing in the abstract, we’re not against them because that would make us heartless. But in practice, they have to go. I call no contradiction on that!

The roll of government? Less. And then a little less than that. It’s certainly a bad thing to regulate billionaires, I think we can all agree on that. That’s just common sense.

The way to achieve their governmental wet dreams is to use their money as speech and flood the marketplace of ideas with theirs. If the majority of people who are just getting by aren’t going to vote, or are only going to pay brief attention and then vote, then the wealthy can influence the public agenda to almost no end.

The rub for them is that the public doesn’t agree with their agenda, so it’s not enough to spend an unprecedented amount to elect a governor who is instantly disapproved of because his agenda is out of step with the public. They’re going to have to do something about that pesky supermajority of Democrats in the state legislature too. As the Wicked Witch of the West put it: “All in due time my pretty, all in due time.”

Oh sorry, these idiots have already ruined Kansas. Can the Winged Monkeys destroy Illinois too?

Planned Parenthood clinics are being attacked over and over again, but who would know that? If scary brown men did it, it would be on media 24/7. But white people are committing these terrorist acts so are they really terrorism?

Will the 3 dead in Colorado get even a scintilla of the attention Paris got?

There’s no end to the hypocrisy.

No matter how robust his polling numbers with hard core tea party Republicans who love his crass, idiotic bellicosity, Trump becomes less of a threat to the Republican establishment and less likely to get the nomination with each Archie Bunker moment.

Each day brings a new low of behavior from this ugly, ugly person, mocking a reporter’s disability, like Rush Limbaugh mocked Michael J. Fox’s condition several years back. Trump casually, thoughtlessly, mocked the reporter’s physicality, like some retrograde comic doing a “retard” routine 20 plus years ago. Sure, his people don’t care. Sure, like all of the other societal politenesses that he labels “PC” and his followers call censorship, they’ll embrace this as another thing that you could do when America was great. Like calling someone a “retard!” When did that word become like nigger? Why are liberals taking my favorite words away? Consarnit!

The TV talking heads can say this won’t hurt him either, like the other daily lies, fascist pronouncements and asshole attacks on people doing their jobs, but it does. It does lower his ceiling of potential support. It does make him less and less credible as someone who could go to the convention and broker a nomination, no less win one outright.

His antics make him untouchable to anyone outside of his core. He doesn’t have to implode and crater, as many expected him to do by now. He just has to continue to be Trump, ie. a nasty, lowlife cretinous creep with no intellectual integrity and a tendency towards casual hatred, to blunt any possibility of him being taken seriously enough as a legitimate contender.

Shame really. If he could have just dialed it down to an 8, he could have been something and really crippled the GOP. But he’s keeping it up at a cartoonish 11 and giving hate challenged lightweights like Cruz and Rubio hope.

Next Nov. will be another 53-47 affair, with delusional GOPers repeating their questioning of the polls and another post-mortum report that will reiterate that they should have nominated someone MORE conservative, but they should, overall, be more inclusive, blah, blah, blah.

The GOP is the Seinfeld party – they don’t learn, nobody grows and they’re about nothing.

Made 4 hens in 48 minutes (12 minutes each) frying in peanut oil in a regular pot on an induction burner, rather than a huge turkey in a massive fryer. Then a little Rosemary, a little Montreal steak seasoning, now that’s good eats!

I barbecued some ribs with my 20 ingredient barbecue sauce. Lobster stuffing and lobster mac & cheese. Made enough food for 20 people. On the downside there were only 7 of us. Math is hard. Finding room for all those leftovers is the price we pay.

So what did Isis do while I was cooking? Surely  they destroyed all humanity.

Naively, I think if they tasted my ribs, they’d realize life is good.

…that it should make the most sense to “America is exceptional” conservatives that making these kids Americans is the best protection you have. You can school ’em up and in a few years, in our present economy, they’re working behind the counter at McDonalds and enlisting in the army to go fight at the old homestead.

Make them American and the worst is they’ll protest for citizenship (if the GOP keeps blocking reform).

If you cast them to the winds, homeless, hungry, desperate, you make potential radicals willing to strap a bomb on them. Boom!

I had posted how one certain cro-magnon from TX realized how easy it was to get guns in TX and decided that well, that means they certainly can’t let Syrian refugees in there! That’s just science.

Amazing how Syrian 5 year olds are so dangerous we have to keep them out of the country, but guns should be widely available at every 7-11.

Syrian toddlers have killed how many Americans?

Whereas American toddlers have killed Americans, with guns.

Roughly once a week this year, on average, a small child has found a gun, pointed it at himself or someone else, and pulled the trigger. Boys are disproportionately likely to do this: I could find only three cases where a girl under the age of 4 wounded someone with a gun. In 13 of the 43 total incidents, a child’s self-inflicted injuries were fatal. In two other cases, another person died after being shot by a toddler: a father in Alabama, and a 1-year-old in Ohio.

If Syria is smart they’ll ban American kids.

Have I said that there’s no end to the stupid?

If you are Christian and American it’s just good politics to be un-Christian and un-American.  Despicable overreaction that negates everything you say you’re committed to is our brand.

There’s no shortage of politicians who are very willing to take a “crisis” like what happened in France, and scream and yell about national security and gnash teeth because the Chris Cilizza’s in the media will always laugh and pat them on the head, enabling them by saying it’s “good politics.” And that may be the most disgusting thing of all and is certainly why we are so fucking dysfunctional and can’t have nice things.

Cilizza’s record of enabling goes back a long way. These are some of his recent greatest hits:

• It was “smart politics” when John Boehner pushed through a budget deal as he was resigning, so that Paul Ryan could play “bad cop.”
• It’s “good politics” for House conservatives to oppose their leaders.
• It was “smart politics” when Carly Fiorina mau-maued CNN into including her in their debate.
• It’s “good politics” for Republican presidential hopefuls to go after Hillary Clinton.
• Donald Trump’s loudmouthed bluntness can, of course, be “good politics.”
• Attacking the media is “good politics” for national Republicans.
• When faced with crises like the Baltimore riots, it’s “good politics” for politicians to show empathy.
• It’s also “good politics” for Republicans to pretend that the media does Hillary Clinton’s bidding.
• It’s “smart politics” when Republicans avoid discussing abortion in favor of talking about the economy.

“Think what you will” of Republican xenophobia and hate-mongering toward Syrian refugees (especially the Muslims among them), but it “sure looks like a political winner.”

Hacks like Cilizza care nothing about policy, only covering the horse race with glib “smartest guy in the room” elan. As John Oliver would say, “FUCK THAT GUY! FUCK THAT GUY TILL HE’S BLUE IN THE FACE!”

What?  There’s other news than whatever is going on in France and the Middle East. I thought they got that suspended until every CNN and MSNBC employee got their free trip to Paris.

Always be the best you you can be.*

The month of October got that advice all twisted around and was the hottest October it could be, (1) which is not good, and (2) which all but guaranties that 2015 will be the hottest year evah!!  which is double plus not good!

* Free advice, you’re welcome!! Also, eat sensibly and floss.

The Syrian refugee crisis was just another human tragedy out there blowing in the tumbleweeds of newsworthiness. Even when entire trucks full of lifeless souls were found or toddlers washed up on shore, it was barely a blip on the consciousness of the media.

But then some nihilist maniacs attack innocent people in Paris and all of a sudden everybody is interested in the refugees, who had nothing to do with what happened in Paris, but whatevs. Details are never important to those who would use tragedy as a political yahtzee!

It’s bad and misguided enough to be a governor and say my state won’t allow any refugees, as if governors got to say those things.  They don’t. But Mike Pence of Indiana takes it to another level of cynical demagogic evil. Syrian family diverted after Indiana changes refugee policy.

Two Syrian refugee families who had been approved to be moved to the United States and were scheduled to arrive in Indianapolis on Thursday have been officially told they are not welcome in the Hoosier State.

One of those babies might be a bomb.

A Tennessee GOP leader said every Syrian already accepted should be rounded up and sent back.

Doubling down on his comments Tuesday, a leading Tennessee Republican still believes it’s best to gather up Syrian refugees living in Tennessee with the help of the Tennessee National Guard.

If at all possible, House GOP Caucus Chairman Glen Casada, R-Franklin, said the state should look at having the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation“observe” those refugees who’ve recently entered the state, regardless of whether they’ve committed any crime.

​”I am calling for civil disobedience, in order to protect the lives and property of Tennesseans. And that has consequences,” Casada said.

He believes in civil disobedience, when it hurts people. Like the rest of the GOP who hates laws that protect civil liberties of people they don’t like, but naturally assert their own right to hate. This freedom is messy.

Chris Christie also said he wouldn’t even take 3-year old orphans, as he twirled an imaginary moustache, rubbed his hands manically and cackled.

He said this after NJ ranked in the top 10 state in the country for accepting Syrian refugees.

Look, part of the game here is that Isis wants Americans to act ugly, to throw children to the winds. If you accept those children, in a decade or two they’re Americans, dreamers, protesting for citizenship. If not, you create alienated, poverty stricken youth with no future and no home who might as well strap bombs to themselves.

How hard is that to understand?

Remember when George said that thing? I know, I know he said so many things that were wrong, my son had a poster of them.  George W. was like the Norm Crosby* of politics but he’s best remembered for this gem:

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”

My dad always said the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.  My corollary to that is that the apples themselves usually bounce in roughly the same direction.

Jeb! “the smart one” laid a W.-style beauty on us yesterday, mangling the old frog in boiling water metaphor.

“It’s like the crabs in the, you know, whatever —the crabs in the boiling water,” Mr. Bush tried.

“Frogs,” an audience member shouted out, helpfully.

“The frogs,” Mr. Bush continued. “You think it’s warm, and it feels pretty good and then it feels like you’re in a whirlpool—you know, a Jacuzzi or something.”

He concluded with a morbid twist: “And then you’re dead. That’s how this works.”

In this metaphor the frog is his campaign. Boo-yah.  See what I did there?

* Crosby was a comic known for his malapropisms. A typical line was “President Johnson declared a war on puberty this week.”